(6im) Process Systems Engineering and Dynamic Process Control of Large-Scale Systems

Research Interests: My research interest lies in the field of dynamic simulation, process control, optimization and system engineering of large-scale hybrid systems. The goal is to develop complex hybrid systems and maximize overall efficiency of the systems by energy integration and exploring synergistic benefits shared within the system. Hybridizing renewable energy with fossil fuel system is the key pathway towards making renewable energy systems feasible by exploring the possible synergistic benefits. Energy integration for these large-scale plants maximizes the hybrid plant performance. Process intensification is combining different units to a single unit. This kind of operation reduces the resources and energy usage of the combined unit in comparison to the separate units. Process intensification also introduces further degrees of freedom for optimization. Optimizing the decision variables ensures plants optimum performance for single or multi-objective goals. Large scale systems have multiple inputs with disturbances creating transient effects coming into the system. Process control is essential in these systems to ensure safe and smooth output.

During my Ph.D. research, I have demonstrated design, dynamic simulation and complex control system of a highly integrated natural gas/ solar thermal hybrid power plant [1]. The study has shown that the solar-to-electric efficiency has almost doubled due to the synergistic benefits of hybridization. A detailed review on hybrid concentrated solar systems has demonstrated the state of art and the current opportunities in this research area [2]. In another article, we have demonstrated the techno-economic evaluation of solar/natural gas hybrid plant [3]. Optimizing hybrid concentrated solar system can further improvise the plant performance both in terms of economic and environmental prospects [4,5]. Using a combination of process intensification and optimization the system reduces the resources need and ensure maximum productivity. Currently as a postdoc in University of Delaware I am working on designing reactive distillation column.

Teaching Interests: My passion for teaching roots to the opportunity of mastering concepts during teaching. Teaching to a group of people further opens my horizon to different ways student think. Also delivering fundamental concepts with applied knowledge enhances my understanding in the particular area. I am passionate about teaching courses like dynamic process control, smart systems, and system engineering. The students will learn system level design and application of different software’s in improvising system performance. Including machine learning in smart system course will help students to apply the strength of machine learning by predicting from data and using it for improving plant performance. Process optimization is also another important course that I am interested to teach. This course will help students to design and optimize non-linear systems and enhance the system performance by using the degrees of freedom in the model. I have TA’ed courses like renewable energy, air pollution, process safety and smart systems where I have had the experience of in class interaction with students. Solid background in my research in these areas will enable the students to view these concepts in a practical aspect.

References:

[1] Rashid, K., Safdarnejad, S. M., & Powell, K. M. (2019). Dynamic simulation, control, and performance evaluation of a synergistic solar and natural gas hybrid power plant. Energy Conversion and Management, 179, 270-285

[2] Powell, K. M., Rashid, K., Ellingwood, K., Tuttle, J., & Iverson, B. D. (2017). Hybrid concentrated solar thermal power systems: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 80, 215-237.

[3] Rashid, K., Safdarnejad, S. M., Ellingwood, K., & Powell, K. M. (2019). Techno-economic evaluation of different hybridization schemes for a solar thermal/gas power plant. Energy, 181, 91-106.

[4] Rashid, K., Sheha, M. N., & Powell, K. M. (2018, June). Real-time optimization of a solar-natural gas hybrid power plant to enhance solar power utilization. In 2018 Annual American Control Conference (ACC) (pp. 3002-3007). IEEE.

[5] Rashid, K., Safdarnejad, S. M., & Powell, K. M. (2019). Process intensification of solar thermal power using hybridization, flexible heat integration, and real-time optimization. Chemical Engineering and Processing-Process Intensification, 139, 155-171.